Prior art devices to facilitate transfer of a dose of a fluid from a bulk container are well known in the art. Usually, these devices are used to transfer a dose of a medicament from a vial or a bulk container of a medicament into a syringe for injection or administrating the dose to a patient. Examples of such devices are documented in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,238,372 and 6,379,340 to Zinger. More advanced adapters, as documented in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0131357 to Denton, are capable of receiving several discharge orifices.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0021000 to Adair et al. discloses an adapter for connecting between a reservoir, a syringe, infusion set tubing, and an infusion pump. According to this disclosure, the reservoir is a detachable component, which is first filled using the adapter and is later inserted into the infusion pump.
Accordingly, the prior art adapters are generally suitable for use between a syringe and vial or other medicament container, which has an orbicular neck. Such devices are not suitable for the filling of fluid infusion devices which have a non-orbicular end at which is disposed an inlet port for filling reservoir of the fluid infusion device, as disclosed in Israel Patent Application No. 171813 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/397,115.
Specifically, due to the miniature size of such infusion devices, it is often difficult for a patient to locate and pierce the seal covering the orifice of the fluid reservoir. Furthermore, the use of unshielded needle to pierce the medicament container septum or the sealed orifice of the reservoir might be associated with inadvertent punctures.